vox pop

English

Etymology

Clipping of vox populi, from Latin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɒksˈpɒp/, /ˈvɒkspɒp/

Noun

vox pop (plural vox pops)

1. (journalism) A short, informal, non-prearranged interview with a member of the public, especially to canvas opinion.

   Synonyms: vox, man on the street

   The reporter got some vox pops in the city square to see what people thought of the country's new flag.

   • 2017 April 29, Catherine Bennett, “Want to know what people really think? Don’t do a vox pop”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     While the BBC guidelines relating to balance are […] so diligently applied that the opinion of 100 so-called experts must always be weighed […] , vox pops remain a chance for journalists to run more or less free.

   • 2018, Gary Hudson, Sarah Rowlands, The Broadcast Journalism Handbook‎^[2], Routledge, →ISBN:

     Vox pops – a series of comments from a variety of people – are a great way to include a sample of public opinion in your programmes and to add colour to reports that would otherwise suffer from a lack of lively soundbites.

Translations

short informal interview

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 街頭採訪 / 街头采访 (jiētóu cǎifǎng), 民意調查 / 民意调查 (zh) (mínyì diàochá)

• Finnish: katuhaastattelu
• French: micro-trottoir (fr) m
• German: Stimmen von der Straße f pl, Meinungsäußerung (de) f